There’s a big new Broadway musical called “New York, New York,” Based on the movie of the same name directed by Martin Scorsese.
Sorting.
Both the film and the show have main characters named Jimmy Doyle and Francine Evans, both set in the immediate aftermath of World War II, and feature a particular anthem by John Kander and Fred Ebb. As you know, playing the first five notes on the piano prompts your brain to automatically fill in the remaining notes.
And it’s the title track alone, not the film, that serves as the true inspiration for the sprawling, unwieldy, and surprisingly boring show at the St. James Theater on Wednesday night.
Judging by the lyrics, “New York, New York,” Directed and choreographed by Susan Stroman, this work is about people in “vagabond shoes”, people who want to “wake up in the city that never sleeps”. Jimmy (Colton Ryan) and Francine (Anna Uzaire) stand shoulder to shoulder with characters conceived by writers David Thompson and Sharon Washington. They are musicians and singers, hard workers and dreamers. And sadly, they make no impression as they are in a syrupy mud of good feelings, hurting the public cheerleading.
Signs of wrinkles and kinks smoothed out as the various storylines moved toward the inevitable crossroads. Jimmy in the film, played by Robert De Niro, is an obnoxious, abusive and narcissistic jerk of a saxophonist who fell in love with Liza Minnelli’s Francine. Their volatile relationship doesn’t pass the 2023 audience smell test.
The new Jimmy is as good as playing jazz with African-American trumpeter Jessie (John Clay III) and Latin grooves with Cuban percussionist Mateo (Angel Sigala) from an accomplished saxophonist. It’s just a minor annoyance that graduated to being a great multi-instrumentalist who can play with ease. The story is drawn with broad strokes. That Jimmy has finally become the human bridge between Harlem and Spanish his Harlem musical style is quite a feat for the Irish kid of the whole wheat bread. (The Jewish violinist played by Oliver Prose is mostly on the sidelines.)
Francine, on the other hand, seems like a spirited, powerful free spirit plugged into a 21st-century outlet. It seems to be slipping from the
Ryan (“Girl From the North Country”, Connor in the movie “Dear Evan Hansen”) and Uzele (“Once on This Island”, Catherine Parr in “Six”) are technically fine, but the characters drawn do not fill as a sketch. They never find the pain that drives both Francine and Jimmy, nor the sexual attraction between them.
This creates a central void that further restrains an overly polished book. Friction feeds fiction.
If anyone knows it, it’s Jon Kander. From “Cabaret” to “Chicago” to his brilliant early collaboration with Strowman, “The Scottsboro Boys,” the effective combination of ruched syncopation, unabashed romanticism and biting irony brings Kander and Ebb on Broadway. It has been prominent for a long time.
Like the propulsive “Music, Money, Love,” the score of “New York, New York” juxtaposes new songs Kander wrote with Lin-Manuel Miranda and older songs with lyrics by Ebb. increase. The best known of them (you-know-what and “But the World Goes ‘Round”) were drawn from Scorsese’s films, but the 1965 show “Flora the Red Menace” A Quiet Thing” was used for a different purpose. ‘, ‘Marry Me’ from ‘The Rink’ (1984).
But too many songs, regardless of when and with whom they were written, lack the jagged edges that are characteristic of Kander and Ebb. In part, this has to do with Sam Davis’ arrangements and musical direction, which further reinforces the show’s sexlessness as it lacks vibrancy: when you don’t swing, you don’t have a pulse (Kander and Ebb were able to do that better than most Broadway his creators. “give me love” (from “Kiss of the Spider Woman”)
The new show’s Laratone is finally paralyzed. This is all the more frustrating because of the ambivalence baked into the title song, which alludes to the city’s whimsical temperament. ‘If I can make it there/I’d make it where where’ — we’re in a tough town — followed by ‘It’s up to you/New York, New York’ steals agency from singer . But the show follows the winning template set by Frank Sinatra rather than the more obscure one given by Minnelli. and no one stands up to New York’s bad side.
Strowman has an unparalleled affinity for classic Broadway showmanship, as seen in productions such as Crazy for You and The Producers, but he’s also known for films such as The Scottsboro Boys. Sometimes leaning towards radical styles.
There are few flashes of inspiration here. A highlight is the tap number staged in the high beams. A couple engraved with “JK 3181927” and “FE 481928” – Kander and Ebb’s dates of birth, and his two Easter eggs lurking in the vibrant set of Beowulf Borit dominated by a towering fire escape A magical moment known as Manhattanhenge Inspired by the brilliant help of lighting designer Ken Billington. And, as always, there’s the instinctive thrill of seeing a big band take the stage as Jimmy’s combo kicks off the title track at the end.
Clocking in at nearly three hours, there’s not much to remember from a show with such formidable potential.
If only “New York, New York” dared to interpret that line as a challenge, rather than as reassuring.
new york, new york
at the St. James Theater in Manhattan. newyorknewyorkbroadway.comRunning time: 2 hours 40 minutes.
